1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of interactive, online media, and more particularly to systems and methods enabling users to select or create advertising and branding to be applied to their avatars, virtual spaces and virtual objects within such media, and providing a reward structure to incentivize such users to adopt such advertising and display it to other users.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most engaging forms of online interactive entertainment immerse participants in a virtual world, which closely reflects the real world in some respects, but which in other respects dramatically and selectively amplifies real-world experience. To personalize the user's experience, the concept of “self” must be carried into the virtual environment as well. It is common in such forms of entertainment for each participant to be provided with an “avatar” that represents how the participant's “self” is manifested in the virtual world.
The concept of an “avatar” is used extensively in this application. To better understand how the term “avatar” is used herein, it is helpful to consider how the term has been used various contexts known in the art. For example:                From the definition of “AVATAR” in the Webopedia (http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/a/avatar.html):        A graphical icon [link to definition of “icon”] that represents a real person in a cyberspace [link to definition of “cyberspace”]. When you enter the system, you can choose from a number of fanciful avatars. Sophisticated 3D avatars even change shape depending on what they are doing (e.g., walking, sitting, etc.).        From a discussion of the Palace: (http:// www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/psyav.html#Introduction):        Head? Body? This is the second visual feature of Palace: “avatars” or “props.” Although these words often are used interchangeably, there is a slight distinction in the minds' of some users. Avatars refer to pictures, drawings, or icons that users choose to represent themselves. Props are objects that users may add to their avatars (say, a hat or cigar) or place into the Palace room or give to another person (say, a glass of beer or a bouquet of flowers). In this article, I will use the terms interchangeably.        From a discussion of Habitat:        In situations where there aren't existing working definitions of the user, —a scenario familiar to networked electronic environments, the users' identity has to be literally constructed prior to their presence. ‘Habitat’, an early MUD [Multi User Dungeons and Dragons game], developed an Avatar, a composite character constructed by its users, choosing body parts, sex, name, age etc. Users proceeded to interact with each other and the virtual environment via their Avatar. The avatar is an example of an electronic identity, and as such displays many of its common characteristics. A representation of an identity made up like a photofit, a combination of checked boxes, words or phrases, some kind of graphic, names, ages etc.        Once this identity has been formed, it then allows you to enter the realm of your choice and to act as this identity. This ‘infofit’ may be self-constructed, or thrust upon you, and already exists to varying degrees. From credit ratings and electronic tagging to e-mail and IRC nicknames —a collection of digital or electronic identities/representations of self which define limits of behaviour within certain (real or virtual) zones. The current slippery nature of the term ‘user’ (or identity) coincides with its increasing importance. As shifting or multiple and conflicting definitions pervade, and as electronic zones exert a greater presence in physical space, the architectural conception of ‘user’ will be forced to accommodate, negotiating real and virtual identities.        From a discussion of Habitat (http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/):        What is an Avatar? It is your body double in Cyberspace, your presence in the virtual communities growing inside two and three dimensional virtual worlds online. With the book Avatars and this companion website, you can now leave simple chat rooms behind and venture forth into the true frontiers of virtual world Cyberspace.        The AVVY awards show that avatars can be flowers and stars: http://millenium.simplenet.com/av99/avvys/av99.htm        From UNC's Virtual University: http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/vu/1999-11.asp (Avatar Pedagogy, by Joel Foreman):        When the Internet was known only to an information technology elite, science fiction writer William Gibson (Neuromancer, 1984) depicted a computer network whose users projected their digital representatives (avatars) into a simulated world so lifelike that it was indistinguishable from the real thing. Although fully realizing this technovision may take 25 years (the guesstimate of networking savant James Crowe), developers have made enough progress to warrant a status report on the technology's emergence and its implications for the virtual university. In what follows I represent the current state of online avatar worlds, describe how I have used them to support instruction, and speculate about their potential for education.        From Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 35:        As Hiro approaches the Street, he sees two young couples, probably using their parents' computers for a double date in the Metaverse, climbing down out of Port Zero, which is the local port of entry and monorail stop.        He is not seeing real people, of course. This is all a part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer according to the specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. The people are pieces of software called avatars.        
As used herein, an “avatar” is best understood as a graphical object in 2D or 3D, representing a persona of a consumer, appearing within a virtual environment. As the term is used in connection with our preferred embodiment (discussed in detail below), an avatar acts under the direct control of the consumer. However, it could be pre-programmed by the consumer to perform certain behaviors, or it could simply perform behaviors that are hardwired by the system. An avatar can take on the visual appearance of any living creature in humanoid, animal, plant, mythical, or other form, or it can be an animated depiction of a non-living thing such as a robot, vehicle, weapon, computer, constellation of stars, etc.
A virtual environment can be implemented using computer networks (known as “networked virtual environment”) and other interactive media such as “interactive television.” A “networked virtual environment” implements a virtual world, a 2D or 3D representation or simulation of a physical space. The networked virtual environment is accessible over a computer network or digital media network by multiple participants simultaneously, who may interact with the virtual world and with one another in near-real time. Similarly, an “interactive television” is conventional television content augmented with interactive facilities, usually delivered over a digital channel augmented by a back channel to the content broadcaster and by a terminal. Users and viewers can interact with the content via the terminal.
In the prior art, consumers participate in interactive online entertainment media through their avatars. This can take the form, for example, of “first-person” games, where the view of the virtual world is through the eyes of the avatar, as the central acting figure, or a third-person perspective (from the point of view of a third-party avatar or camera watching them). The networked virtual environment can be viewed by active participants whose avatars are within the environment, or alternatively, it may be viewed by non-participants who are not represented by an avatar in the environment.
The concept of “advertising” is also used throughout this application. For purposes hereof, the term “advertising” is used in a broad sense, and is intended to cover traditional advertisements, as well as the use of “brand marks,” which can take the form of a corporate symbol or logo, a trademark, advertising text or copy, a graphical picture, or any multimedia element employed for the purposes either of advertising per se, or simply promoting or exposing a brand, trademark or service mark. Even when used alone without specific reference to branding and brand marks, the term “advertising” should be understood to refer to the use of such indicia as well as to traditional advertising.
It is well known in the prior art to finance the creation of interactive online entertainment media by various forms of paid advertising sponsorship. An online game may be sponsored (“brought to you by”) a named sponsor, which will pay for the opportunity to be so identified. Alternately, advertisements may be embedded in the virtual world, much as billboards and the like are deployed in the real world. The use of such virtual billboard advertising is well established, for example in interactive sports gaming, such as simulated basketball, hockey, etc., wherein advertisements become part of the texture mapping for background panels such as walls and railing panels.
Moreover, there has been some deployment of advertising indicia on avatars themselves in a number of prior art online gaming formats. For example, as in real life, the cars in auto racing games often come emblazoned with advertising logos on their outer panels and surfaces, if for no other reason than realism.
In all of these prior art formats, however, despite the intended interactive format of the game, the participant is a relatively passive participant vis-à-vis the advertising. The advertising is in effect pushed or thrust upon a non-voluntary and often indifferent participant, who may become jaded to the experience and make an effort to ignore the advertising, or consider it part of the background. Even when the advertising is applied to the participant's own avatar (a race car, for example), the participant has no say in what advertising is applied, and no real interest in the issue.